


Always Another One (The Robin Recruitment Remix)

by Redrikki



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Gotham Central
Genre: Dead Robins, Gen, Harm to Children, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 17:56:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4109887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There have been Robins in Gotham City for almost twenty years.  The detectives of the M.C.U. have opinions about that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always Another One (The Robin Recruitment Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [havisham](https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Currently looking for a sidekick to teach in the ways of righteousness](https://archiveofourown.org/works/282800) by [havisham](https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/pseuds/havisham). 



> Major spoilers for the dead Robins arc of Gotham Central (#33-36) and Batman Annual 27/Detective Comics Annual 11.

Harvey would never forget the first time Batman answered the bat-signal with a Robin in tow. They’d heard rumors about some twink in pixie boots mixing it up with Zucco’s boys, but seeing was believing. Standing next to Batman wasn’t some crime-fighting midget; it was an honest to goodness kid wearing an enormous smile and short-shorts that left nothing to the imagination. “Hi,” he chirped. He was practically bouncing with excitement. 

“No,” Harvey told him flatly. “Go home, kid. Your mom wants you.” 

The smile fell off the kid’s face like a ton of bricks. Batman’s protective rage seemed to radiate off of him. “This is Robin.” He laid his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “My new partner.”

“You must be out of your god damn-”

“Bullock!” Gordon snapped. He took a deep, calming breath and handed Batman the envelope with the evidence and notes for the Erskin case. They’d hit a dead end but now the Batman and a kid too young to shave were going to handle it. Christ, what was this city coming to? “Any help you can give us, Batman, would be appreciated.”

“Of course, Captain. I’ll let you know what I find.” He tucked the envelope away and fired out a grappling hook. 

Robin flashed them a tepid smile. “Nice to meet you,” he said, and swung after his ‘partner.’

“Please tell me you are not okay with this.” Harvey didn’t have much use for kids as a species but he knew reckless endangerment when it was staring him in the face. “Jesus, he’s younger than Barbara.” 

“I know,” Gordon yelled, rounding on him. His fists clenched and unclenched as they glared at each other. Gordon looked away first. “I’m not okay with it,” he confessed quietly. He took off his glassed and began wiping them furiously. “There’s nothing I can do.” His shoulder slumped in something like defeat. “It’s Batman.” 

****

Lt. Maggie Sawyer sidled up to Robin number two as the team finished mopping up after the Dynamic Duo’s take-down of a human trafficking ring. Gotham had gotten used to teenage vigilantes over the last half-dozen years, but this new kid was a good five years younger than the last one. He had slightly curly hair and a faint smattering of freckles. He should have been at home in bed dreaming about his impending puberty and not out here fighting the good fight on a school night. 

For as long as she could remember, Maggie had wanted to be on the job like her old man, but she’d always had options. She’d had plenty of time to learn what she was getting into and what it cost. Did this kid even have the first clue? “Are you sure about this?” Maggie asked, jerking her head towards where Batman and the Commissioner were talking shop. 

“Sure as death and taxes,” Robin answered back with a crooked grin and a back-alley accent. 

Batman and Gordon were wrapping up. “Robin,” Batman barked, pulling out his grappling in preparation for a dramatic exit. 

“Try to avoid the former,” Maggie called after the boy as ran to heel like an over-eager puppy.

Robin turned and smirked at her. “That’s taxes, right?” he quipped and fired his line. He was laughing as he and Batman swung overhead. 

Maggie shook her head. This life wasn’t a game and Robin would figure that out soon enough. She just hoped he’d have other options if a day came when he wanted some. 

****  
There would always be another Robin. It wasn’t exactly a running gag at the MCU except, by the third one, it kind of was. “Where does he find these kids?” Cris asked as he read the article about Gotham’s latest Boy Wonder. 

“Check the personals,” Bullock suggested, spraying bits of his lunch all over his already disgusting desk. “’Masked freak seeks impressionable sidekick to train in the ways of nutjobbery.’” 

Renee ignored him. Some people on the department might not like it, but the city needed their Dynamic Duo. Batman made people feel safe and Robin brought them hope. They swung together across the front page of today’s Gotham Gazette, Batman unsmiling but radiating pride and Robin grinning like an idiot. “Forget the personals.” Renee yanked the paper out of Cris’s hand. “This,” she held it up, “is a family affair.” Line them up and the Robins could be a set of Russian nesting dolls. She bet they all looked just like their papa. 

Cris shook his head in disgust. “What kind of father drags his kid into this?”

Bullock heaved himself out of his chair and lumbered across the bullpen. “He could be snatching ‘em off the street for all we know.” He grabbed the paper and studied it for a moment before throwing it on the desk. “At least this one’s wearing pants.”

****

“I’m not crazy,” Takahata insisted as they doctored their start-of-shift coffee. “There was a girl-Robin for a few weeks there.”

Romy took an experimental sip and added some more sugar. “Yeah, there was a girl Robin,” she said. The girl had had blond hair and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it career before they were back to their regularly scheduled boy Robins. “Doesn’t mean you’re not crazy though.”

Takahata gave her a wounded look. Nate would have laughed. He could be a real ass on occasion but Nate Patton had been the best partner a girl could ask for right up until that freak in the bat suit had gotten him killed.

“I wonder what happened to her,” Takahata mused as the headed back to their desks. 

Romy shrugged. “Maybe she wised up to the fact her boss was a freaking psycho.” For a split second Romy wished, well, she didn’t wish that the girl was dead, but she wished the Bat knew what it felt like to lose a partner. She wanted him to get that his bullshit hurt people and to stop pretending he was the city’s fucking savior. Most of all she wanted her damn partner back. She swallowed hard. “I hope she’s alright.”

Takahata shifted uncomfortably. “I’m sure she’s fine.” 

“Yeah,” Romy sighed. There were two Jane Does in red on the board. They had no way of knowing if she was one of them. 

 

****  
Cris could feel his blood pressure rising with every block they drove away from Shining Eyes Talent Agency. The worried glances Renee kept shooting at him instead of watching the road just made it worse. “Are you okay?”

“A god damn talent agency,” Cris ground out. “Funny how that never came up when we were discussing where Batman found ‘em.” Random girl Robin aside, everyone in the city knew that Batman had a type. All he needed was a casting call for an athletic, black-haired white boy. That was all their perp had needed to find his fakes. How many other kids the agency represented were in danger? How many more dead ‘Robins’?

“At least we can eliminate Batman as a suspect,” Renee offered and something in Cris boiled over. So many people in this goddamn city were so wrapped up in the idea of Batman as savior they couldn’t see he was part of the problem. 

“No,” agreed Cris, “He’s not guilty, but he’s sure as shit responsible.” Would either of those kids have been in danger if Batman hadn’t dragged a bunch of teenagers into his mad crusade? Renee had speculated once that the Bats were some kind of family. Cris would kill himself before he ever put his boys in the kind of danger Batman regularly did, assuming Dore didn’t do it first. 

“Excuse me?!” 

“How many Robins, Renee? How many Robins and no one knows what happens to them?” Cris was yelling. He was ranting. He didn’t care. “Batman put those kids in danger. We all looked the other way and now two boys are dead. Explain to me how that’s okay.”

Renee clenched her jaw and her knuckles went white on the steering wheel. Since the disaster at the school, half the department hated the Bat but not Renee. She was his last true disciple. “This city needs Robin. It needs them both.”

“Yeah,” Cris sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted and deflated. How long had they been telling themselves that? How much of the responsibility for this was theirs? “We need Batman and his child-soldiers doing the dirty work so we don’t have to. Do me a favor, remind me that’s a good thing when we’re standing over our next dead Robin.”

****

The new Robin scowled and glared like he missed the memo about just which half of the Dynamic Duo was supposed to be intimidating. It made Josie miss the last one. What the hell happened to that kid? Was he hanging out with the Teen Titans? Taking time off for college? Dead? God, she hoped he wasn’t dead. 

“I will go under cover as the Canton boy in order to lure the kidnappers from hiding,” Robin number four (or was it five?) announced pompously. 

“No,” Josie told him flatly. As obnoxious as he was, Josie wasn’t letting a ten-year-old kid play bait for a suspected killer. 

Robin folded his arms and glared. “We require neither your approval nor your assistance.”

“But we would appreciate both,” Batman said through gritted teeth. He gripped his sidekick’s shoulder and squeezed hard enough that his gloves creaked. If Josie’s little talent hadn’t already told her this guy wasn’t the real Bat, _that_ would have been a big clue. 

Her second “no” overlapped with her partner’s “yes.” Of course Harvey Bullock would be okay with using this kid as bait. He’d been off on a beach sipping retirement mai tais while Josie was primary on the dead Robins case. 

“Excuse us,” Harvey said before hauling Josie across the room.

She shook him off as soon as they were out of earshot. “You know that’s not the real Batman, right?”

He nodded like it was old news. “I’m pretty sure he’s the original Robin.” Harvey tilted his hat back to scratch at his graying hair. “Christ, that makes me feel old.” He sighed. “Look, you’re not okay with this. I get it. You got a better idea, I’m all ears.”

The problem was, there wasn’t a better plan. Their protection detail on the Canton family would keep their kid safe, but they had hit a dead end tracking that demon-tailed freak. They needed to draw him out and Robin was the best lure they had. 

“Robin will be alright. We’ll look after him.”

Josie nodded dumbly. The Bat would look after him, they’d look after him, and hopefully at the end of the day she wouldn’t end up standing over another dead Robin. She looked back to where the Dynamic Duo was quietly arguing. The first Robin and the last Robin, except he wasn’t the last Robin. However this case played out, history had shown that there would always be another one.


End file.
